Workflow to Automate Editorial Approval

[Bill_Bernat]

We have a very simple need for approvals. Suppose there is content that needs to be created. Person A creates content (in a word doc). Person B approves it or sends it back with requested changes. Then Person A updates it and sends it for approval again. This can happen once, or 20 times. (In reality, almost never more than 3.)

Asana suggests creating a task (Write the draft.). Person A writes the draft and then creates a subtask for Person B, “Approve the draft,” and marks it as Approval. Person B rejects and it and requests changes. Person A revises and makes a new subtask “Approve the draft #2” and assigns it to Person B and marks it as Approval. This goes on until Person B has given approval.

That’s fine except it’s not very automatic. We’re relying on the content creator to get approval. Also, there’s no record of approval on a document or even task, just approval of a subtask. On the other hand, it’s practical.

QUESTION(S)
Is there a better way to do this? New Workflow capabilities were released in February, could they help?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! We’re considering moving from premium to business if we can have workflow automation that handles this.

Thanks!
-billb

[Emily_Roman]

Hi @Bill_Bernat, thanks for reaching out! This is currently how we handle approvals in my team as well In order to keep track of the changes requested, Person B can add comments with more details, or you can create separate approval tasks for each time they had to review the draft.

You could also automate the creation of approvals using Rules. For example, you can set that every time the custom field “Ready for review” is added to the task, Asana automatically creates and assign an approval subtask to Person B.

This option is currently available for Business customers. You can also create more customized rules using the Rule Builder.

I hope this helps!

[Bill_Bernat]

Yes, thanks Emily, very helpful!

If you happen to know, I’m still not getting one thing. Although testing this out with a team member may answer the question maybe you can assist. This is just for word documents, where we can use comments and track changes, so there’s no worry about communicating changes.

My question is: If I get an approval task assigned to me and I reject it, who sees that rejection? I would guess the person who assigned me the approval task? If that’s the case, what if they assign me a subtask, does the same apply–would they be notified if I rejected an item? How does this part of a workflow go?

How does this part of a workflow go?

At that moment – after I have rejected an approval task – does the person who needs to deal with the rejection get notified automatically? If not, how can I make that happen?

Many Thanks,
-billb